Jorge Andrade photo via Flickr Chaos Unfolds in Northeast Brazil Just Before Olympics More than 1,200 troops to deploy in the country’s most violent region by DAVID GAGNE This article originally appeared at InSight Crime. Shootings, arson attacks and prison riots have engulfed a northeastern state of Brazil, drawing attention to the major security... Read more

TFBSO’s Kabul compound. SIGAR photo Pictures from inside the America’s defunct, war-zone business venture by MATTHEW GAULT In 2009, the Pentagon shipped American business experts to Afghanistan to help jump-start the war-torn country’s economy. To that end, the Task Force for Business and Stability Operations spent more than $800 million from 2009... Read more

Iraqi air force pilot photo via Arnaud Delalande An-32s can now drop bombs by ARNAUD DELALANDE On July 17, 2016, the first photo appeared on social media depicting an Iraqi air force An-32B Cline transport aircraft carrying a bomb on an external pylon. It’s not the first time that transport aircraft... Read more

Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, at left. Photo via Wikipedia Breaking the camouflage wall of silence by NICK TURSE It’s rare to hear one top military commander publicly badmouth another, call attention to his faults, or simply point out his shortcomings. Despite a seemingly endless supply of debacles from strategic setbacks to quagmire... Read more

So how do you reform Baghdad’s army and police? by JOSEPH TREVITHICK To hear officials in Washington tell it, after two years of often sluggish offensives, Iraqi forces are finally starting turn the tide in the fight against Islamic State. In particular, the Pentagon has focused on the exploits of... Read more

Iranian troops firing their rifles during an exercise. Iranian state media photo Don’t assume the PDKI conflict is a proxy war by ROBERT ANDREA Last month, reports emerged of clashes between Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps and members of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI or KDPI), reportedly killing six from each... Read more

Leathernecks work closely with American commandos by JOSEPH TREVITHICK The U.S. Marines’ top officer in the Middle East wants to lend a hand in the war on the Islamic State. “Some of the missions executing now could be executed by well-trained and disciplined general purpose forces... Read more

Mines being destroyed in a controlled detonation in Mali, April 2014. U.N. photo Helicopter shootdown reveals a secretive war with questionable allies by PETER DOERRIE When a helicopter carrying three French soldiers was reportedly shot down near Benghazi a few weeks ago, it confirmed what had been speculated about for months.... Read more

The sight of the Paris shootings in November 2015. Colville-Anderson photo via Flickr Terror attacks are explicitly aimed at exploiting divisions in pluralistic societies by KEVIN KNODELL The leaders of the self-proclaimed Islamic State say they are at war with the entire world. In their view, all must submit or die.... Read more

Rodrigo Duterte takes his oath of office in June 2016. Photo via Wikipedia 400 die as Rodrigo Duterte’s rhetoric escalates by JOANNE LU The Philippines’ new president Rodrigo Duterte doesn’t need official policy to incite a deadly war on drugs. This “kill list” is proof. Since May 9, 2016, when “Rody”... Read more